U16 Hurling B Shield Championship – Saturday 2nd November 2024
Posted November 9, 2024
Naomh Mearnóg 3-13 O’Tooles 3-9
U16 Hurling B Shield Championship – Saturday 2nd November 2024
A decent crowd came along to pitch 3 in Pairc Mearnóg
on Saturday afternoon and were treated to a highly entertaining game of hurling as Mearnóg U16s came out tops by 4 points to progress to the Shield final on 16th November.
Mearnóg made a bright start to the game and were leading by 0-4 after 0-0 after 10 mins thanks to 3 points from Finn O’Donnell and one from Liam Hogan. O’Tooles came back with 2 points before O’Donnell responded with 2 of his own to leave the score 0-6 to 0-2 after 15 mins.
On 20 mins the game turned on its head and O’Tooles hit a purple patch, scoring 2-1 without reply to take a 3-point lead heading towards half time.
The Mearnóg inside forwards had been threatening all game and finally came good scoring 1-2 in the final minutes of the first half thanks to 2 points from Liam Hogan and a goal from Shane Rafter.
This left the half time score Mearnóg 1-08 to O’Tooles 2-3.
With just 50 seconds gone in the second half, O’Tooles were back in the game when they registered their third goal to take a one-point lead.
The game ebbed and flowed for 10 mins and both sides struggled to stamp their authority on the game until Daragh Fahy scored a fine individual point from out on the right. Finn O’Donnell followed up with a free before Liam Hogan put the game to bed with a 2-goal salvo on 42 and 44 mins. These scores capped a fine individual performance from Hogan whose game has come on leaps and bounds over the past couple of months. O’Donnell popped over another free to give Mearnóg a 6-point lead with 15 mins remaining.
Both sides fought on bravely to the end. O’Tooles scored 5 points over the last quarter but Mearnóg kept a distance on the scoreboard with two late points from James O’Brien and Shane Rafter.
The win means that Mearnóg go forward to the Shield final to take on Round Towers Clondalkin who beat Clontarf in the other semi-final.
Mearnóg scorers: Liam Hogan (2-3), Finn O’Donnell (0-7, 0-5F), Shane Rafter (1-1), Daragh Fahy (0-1), James O’Brien (0-1).
Panel: Cillian Slevin, Ronan O’Brien, Sam Reid, Ethan Fitzgibbon, Patrick Corcoran, Jack Clarke, Cillian Brennan, Theo Dunne, Daniel Burns, Daragh Fahy, Finn O’Donnell, Shane O’Brien, Jack Lawn, Liam Hogan, Shane Rafter, Louis Rittweger, James O’Brien, Ronan McNally, Jack Dowley, Thuan Ball, Sean Walsh
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